Baby Pears and Ice Cream
Some friends gave us baby pears preserved in sweet wine as a Christmas present. I thought that they would go well with some vanilla ice cream, so that’s what we did. When I opened the jar I realised that the baby pears were a lot more baby than I thought they’d be; they were very tiny indeed.
The pears had quite a strong flavour from being preserved in sweet wine, so the ice cream wasn’t quite strong enough to hold up to them. A drizzle of Pedro Ximinez (a sweet, raisiny Sherry) over the ice cream gave it a bit of a kick and brought it together with the pears a lot better.
Marmalade
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We vaguely talked about making marmalade earlier in the year but couldn’t find any Seville oranges. I was secretly quite pleased about that as it seemed like an awful lot of work for something only eaten at the weekends (we tend to eat cereal during the week). This however all changed when we spotted some oranges while shopping on Saturday and felt like we had to go through with it.
There’s an awful lot of commentary on the subject of marmalade and deciding which recipe to go with was a daunting task, neither of us wanting to be stuck with vats of unedible preserve. We used this James Martin recipe in the end and it was both straightforward and easy to follow.
Stephen (conveniently?) had a cut on his hand so I ended up doing most of the slicing and squeezing and cutting and chopping and it wasn’t as labour intensive as I thought it would be; the end result was definitely worth it. The marmalade is very well balanced, not too sweet and not too sour and I somehow doubt we’ll only be eating this at the weekend.
Hamburgers and Chips
Having decided on hamburgers for dinner, we started thinking about what kind of meat to use. A quick Google search suggested chuck steak was the best option and luckily enough the butcher had some and was happy to mince it for me. I asked him if he would recommend any other cuts but he said this was perfect for hamburgers as there was a decent amount of fat to keep everything moist.
As we hadn’t used chuck steak before and wanted to really taste the meat, I kept the seasonings fairly simple, just a little parsley, some salt and pepper and a splash of mushroom ketchup. On reflection, I think the hamburgers could have benefitted from something else, mustard perhaps.
These were quite fat so we fried them for five minutes on either side which left them about medium, it occured to us that we probably could have got away with a leaner cut afterall since we didn’t cook the hamburgers all the way through. They were good though, moist but not oily and fully flavoured; ever so slightly challenging for me to eat with my wonky mouth mind you!
Carbonara
Both Stephen and I were home late last night and we didn’t have anything planned for dinner. It’s been a bit of a challenge to find interesting things to eat since I had my wisdom tooth out, I’ve been craving lamb chops but don’t think I’ll be able to chew them.
I ended up in Waitrose on my way home hoping that inspiration would strike but nothing really called out to me. After browsing the ready-made pasta dishes I settled on carbonara knowing that all I needed was cream. Stephen loves eggs so we always have those and the little packets of pancetta that Waitrose sell are useful for so many things that we try to keep those in the fridge too.
I didn’t really follow a recipe but I used one small packet of pancetta (two would have been better!), two eggs, a small carton of cream, some salt and pepper and lots of parmesan cheese. While the pasta is cooking, frythe pancetta off first and drain away the oil. Combine the eggs, cheese and salt and pepper together in a jug. When the pasta is cooked, stir everything in and serve.
Salmon with Horseradish Mash
Kerri was feeling unwell today as a result of having one of her wisdom teeth out last week, so it was just dinner for me. And coincidentally it was fish, greens and potatoes, much like last time I was just cooking for myself. Salmon seasoned with paprika and salt this time though, and horseradish mash.
Paprika Salmon
Salmon
Paprika
Salt
Butter
Olive oil or vegetable oil
Mix an equal amount of paprika (sweet works better than smoked here) and salt. Sprinkle this onto the fish and pat it in. Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to it (the butter gives a good flavour and the oil lowers the “smoke point” so that it won’t burn as easily). Heat the pan to medium heat and when the butter has melted and mixed with the oil and is hot, add the fish skin-side down and then turn the heat down a bit. Depending on the thickness of the fish, cook it for between five and ten minutes. This piece was quite fat, so it cooked for almost ten minutes. While it is cooking, spoon the oil and butter mixture over it regularly, once a minute or so. If when it is cooked, it is still looking a little pale on top then turn it over for thirty seconds or so to give it some colour. Serve!
The simple recipe that we use for the greens works very well, and we have had it a few times lately. It does bother me that shops are selling “spring greens” at the moment; surely global warming isn’t quite that bad?! They are tasty though.
“Spring” Greens
1 large head spring greens, or 2 small ones
butter
salt
pepper, preferably freshly ground or crushed white pepper if you have it
Remove the leaves of the greens from the head. Discard any discoloured outer leaves. Strip the leaves from their stalks, tearing each leave into three or four pieces. Rinse them in a colander and shake a bit of the water off, but leave the leaves damp. Heat a small knob of butter in a lidded saucepan. When it has melted, add the leaves and stir a few times and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down and put the lid on the saucepan.
Remove the lid and stir a few times while they cook; this distributes the heat and coats them in the butter-water emulsion and seasoning. After a few minutes, they should wilt down and start to soften while turning bright green. If the leaves are tough then they might need a little longer. They will definitely need longer than something like spinach, but don’t overcook them as it’s good to have some texture when they are on the plate.
I first used white pepper on these by accident but loved the result. I thought we had run out of black pepper (in reality though we had plenty but the grinder was just blocked) so I ground some white pepper in the mortar and pestle and sprinkled that on. White pepper has such wonderful aromatics and quite a different flavour to black pepper; I find it strange to think that white pepper is made from black pepper.
The horseradish mash was quite simple; no need for a recipe. Simply steam potatoes, then mash and add a spoonful or two or horseradish and stir/mash it in well. I added butter to it, which I love with mashed potato that is simply seasoned with salt and pepper, or even with mustard, but I find cream goes much better with horseradish; sadly we didn’t have any cream though.
As for wine, we have loads of bottles of fortified wines lying around our flat at the moment as I’m “studying” for my fortified wine module of the WSET diploma. I had a tasting sample of both manzanilla and manzanilla pasada at the time and found that the manzanilla pasada went quite well with the salmon. For those who haven’t tried manzanilla pasada, it takes a bit of explaining:
It is a type of Sherry which, like all true Sherry, is produced in the Jerez region in southern Spain. Not the sort of nasty, industrially-produced, too-sweet sherry that hangs around in dusty decanters though. Let’s start the story with fino which is a light, elegant, crisp sherry that is wonderful as an aperitif. Fino gets a lot of its character from a film of “flor” yeast that grows over it in the barrel while it is maturing and protects it from oxidation while imparting a uniquely yeasty, crisp flavour.Â
Manzanilla is similar to fino, but is yet lighter and more elegant because it is matured near the coast where the layer of flor is thicker and the sea air and humidity impart a salty tang to it. Finally, manzanilla pasada is a manzanilla that has been aged until the flor starts to die off and the manzanilla starts to oxidise. Leave it much longer and it’ll turn into an amontillado, which is a darker, nuttier, slightly spicy, oxidised style of sherry. Get it at the right time though and it’s a manzanilla pasada, which has a touch of both styles in it; just right to accompany a piece of fish with a salty, slightly spicy coating.
Barley Risotto with Root Vegetables
Looking at our “this week last year” list, there is only one entry this week – Scotland. Because that’s where we were on holiday last year. A quick browse through the pictures revealed ballotine of pheasant with barley risotto. I remember that barley risotto as being rather good, but it was normal (i.e. rice) risotto with some barley added to it. We decided to try one that was only barley.
Ingredients:
150g barley
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 carrot, diced (not quite as finely as the onion and celery)
1 parsnip, diced (same size as the carrot)
2 gloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
herbs – we used the leaves from several stalks of thyme, but sage would be good too
1 bay leaf
125ml white wine or vermouth
500ml chicken stock
parmesan cheese
This is cooked in much the same way as a normal risotto, except that it took a bit longer to cook. Add some oil to a saucepan, over medium heat, and add the celery and onion and soften. After a few minutes, add the carrot, parsnip, bay leaf and other herbs. Stir a little, season with some salt and pepper, then turn down the heat and put the lid on the saucepan to let the vegetables sweat. After a few more minutes, add the garlic, stir, and leave to sweat for a few more minutes.
Meanwhile, heat up the stock in another saucepan. Now turn up the heat and add a little more oil if it has dried out. Add the barley and stir. We found that it didn’t start to go translucent in the way that rice does, but after a few minutes it did start to brown a little. At this point, add the wine and stir until it has almost all boiled off. Turn down the heat and add a ladle of stock. Stir until it has almost all been absorbed, then add some more. Keep going until the stock is all incorporated. If the barley is still not cooked after adding all the stock, then keep adding water until it is cooked.
Stir in some grated parmesan, check for seasoning, and serve. This didn’t seem like that much when we served it, but it was very filling and did feed us both quite well.
Slow Roast Pork Shoulder
I know, it looks dry doesn’t it? It was a little dry but not quite as bad as the photograph suggests. We didn’t follow a recipe for this and really should have as it didn’t turn out as well as it could have.
We slow roasted the pork on top of some vegetables for six hours. What we should have done is slow roasted it and added the vegetables for the last hour, then we would have been able to make some really good gravy. As it turned out, the vegetables burnt and dried out so we had to throw them away and make the gravy from scratch which wasn’t as good as it could have been.
We didn’t even have any crackling to make up for it because we felt a little disillusioned by the time the pork was cooked and ended up throwing the potentially crisp and juicy skin away.
Don’t let this put you off though because, if you follow the “should-have-done” method, you’ll get deliciously moist pork with great crackling for very little effort.
Cottage Pie with Three Cuts of Beef
After our big success cooking shepherd’s pie with more than one cut of lamb, we decided to try the same with beef using minced beef, beef shin and calve’s liver. We topped it with mashed potatoes with a little mashed cauliflower mixed into it for some extra flavour, and brushed with egg wash to give it a golden top. Served with some broccoli and anchovy butter.
It turned out well, but not as brilliantly as our shepherd’s pie had previously. It could be that the kidneys just gave it a lot more flavour last time than the liver did this time, or the stock we used last time was better. Or we just cooked it better somehow last time.
The recipe goes something like this:
500g beef mince
250g beef shin, diced
250g calves liver, diced
a handful of flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 onion finely chopped
2 stalks of celery finely chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
1 tbs tomato puree
500ml beef stock
250ml red wine
Ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
3 anchovies (optional)
A few springs of thyme, leaves only
A small bunch of parsely, chopped
4 medium sized potatoes
Half a small head of cauliflower (optional)
1 egg, beaten
Add a little oil to a medium sized saucepan and add the onion on a low heat. Stir it around a bit, then put on the lid and let it sweat for a few minutes. Then add the carrot and celery, and replace the lid, letting it all sweat for about 15 minutes, stirring often.
Season the mince with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Heat some oil in a large saucepan on a medium to high heat and brown the mince. When it is brown, drain off any fat that has cooked out of the mince and reserve the mince on a plate. Deglaze the saucepan with a little wine, reserve the wine, and add more oil to the saucepan. Coat the diced beef shin in the seasoned flour, then brown that. When that is done, remove it to the plate and deglaze, again keeping the liquid. Add a little more oil, coat the liver in seasoned flour and brown that too.
Once the liver is brown, turn the heat down to low and return the rest of the meat to the pan, along with the reserved wine from deglazing. Add a little more salt and pepper, the bay leaves, anchovies, thyme and parsely and add the sweated vegetables too. Stir this around a bit to incorporate it all, then add the tomato puree too and stir it in; this usually gives it all a nice sheen.
Pour in the rest of the wine and the beef stock and cover. Simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally. If it dries out, add some more water. Then remove the lid and simmer for another half an hour to an hour to cook off any excess liquid. During this last period, peel and chop the potatoes and chop the cauliflower. Steam or boil them both, then mash together with butter, salt and pepper.
Check the meat mixture for seasoning, then spread it all into the bottom of an oven dish. Cover with the mashed potato and cauliflower, then brush this with the beaten egg and put into an oven that has been pre-heated to 180C. Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes until nicely brown on top, then remove, leave it to cool for a while, and enjoy!
When thinking about wine to have with this, I was after something quite full and earthy and thought it could take a fair amount of tannin too. However, I’ve got a cold at the moment and can’t smell or taste that well, so decided not to go overboard with it as I wouldn’t really be able to tell how well it went that well. I ended up with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone Villages Cairrane, which wasn’t what I had first had in mind (I somehow don’t generally imagine southern Rhone wines with beef for some reason), but as far as my impaired senses could make out, it went quite well. It was big (14.5%) and fairly tannic (ripe though, so not astringent) with a good mouthful of grenache fruit and firmly on the dry side.
Pan-Fried Tilapia with New Potatoes, Spring Greens and Salsa Verde (of sorts)
Kerri had one of her wisdom teeth taken out today, so she’s not really capable of eating much and had mashed potato for dinner. I wasn’t sure what to have, but given that we had planned to have fish at some point this week and hadn’t yet succeeded in doing so, thought that I would try that.
I ended up with tilapia because it looked interesting at the fish counter. Not always a good indication of whether or not it will taste good, but in this case it wasn’t too bad. I simply seasoned it and pan-fried it in butter. The new potatoes were steamed and then very quickly sauteed in a little butter. For the spring greens, I melted some butter in a saucepan, then washed the greens and put them in without drying them too much. The butter and water emulsify, giving a lovely texture and taste. So butter all round today; James Martin would be proud. Butter in Kerri’s mashed potato too of course.
For the salsa verde, I chopped some mint and some parsely and combined with some chopped capers and anchovies and some olive oil. Then I added some lemon juice with a little too much enthusiasm. Result: Too sour. So I added a tiny dash of sugar to balance it out. Not quite enough, so added more. Result: Too sweet. So I added some salt to balance it out. Result: Sort of okay but not quite what I was after. I didn’t think I would eat much of it as I didn’t like it much, but once it was on the fish and potatoes it was a lot nicer than I thought it would be, so ended up eating quite a bit of it.
Franco Manca
I’ve heard a lot about Franco Manca since it opened last year so was looking forward to my visit with Niamh and Lizzie . It’s only open at lunchtime and its in Brixton which has made it difficult for any of us to get there before. Despite meeting at the tube station at the arranged time, it was still difficult for us to get there as none of us had thought to look up exactly where it was. Luckily, the friendly local flower seller knew where we wanted to go so directed us there and even provided a shortcut.
Althought I’d previously read a couple of reviews, I hadn’t paid much attention to references to the restaurant itself so I was surprised to find myself in the middle of one of Brixton’s many covered market areas. The restaurant occupies two units on either side of the market, both with a small indoor seating area. As it was lunchtime, it was busy inside so we had to sit at one of the outside tables and it was freezing. Many people believe Franco Manca to make the best pizza in London, some say the best pizza outside of Naples, so we weren’t about to turn around and go home.
One of the things that cropped up in all the reviews I’d read was how cheap it was I don’t think anyone could argue with that, just £5.40 for my choice of pizza with anchovies, olives and capers. The wine was also cheap at just £6.80 a bottle but unfortunately it was so bad that we left most of it behind.
Luckily, the pizza was much better than the wine. The picture below doesn’t show the size but they were certainly generous and well cooked. The thin, sourdough base is left to rise for 20 hours and then cooked at 500 degrees for just 40 seconds. This results in a thin, crispy base and allows the cheese to melt slightly but not completely. The short cooking time also means that the anchovies remained incredibly fresh but combined with the capers, I found them to be a little too salty.
As for whether it deserves its title as best pizza in London, I’m not sure yet but I think I still prefer Marine Ices. It’s warmer in there too.
